Sri Aurobindo uses the comparison to the human capacity of exclusive concentration, or focus, to make the case that this process carries itself out similarly in Nature: “Essentially, in the universal order of things, the inconscience of material Nature is the same exclusive concentration, the same absorption in the work and the energy as in the self-limitation of the waking human mind, or the concentration of the self-forgetting mind in its working; it is only that self-limitation carried to a farthest point of self-forgetfulness which becomes, not a temporary action, but the law of its action. Nescience in Nature is the complete self-ignorance; the partial knowledge and general ignorance of man is a partial self-ignorance marking in her evolutionary order a return towards self-knowledge: but both are and all ignorance is, when examined, a superficially exclusive self-forgetful concentration of Tapas, of the conscious energy of being in a particular line or section of its movement of which alone it is aware or which alone it seems to be on the surface.”
While this Ignorance or Nescience in Nature seems absolute and essential, in fact, while it is the effective law of Nature in various stages of its manifestation, such as in Matter and material forms, it is not essential or a permanent reality, since behind all is the All-Consciousness manifesting all of existence. This opens up the possibility for the self-limitation of exclusive concentration to be systematically reduced, a process which occurs as the evolution of spiritual consciousness occurs through the ascending series of forms in Nature. The evolution of consciousness brings with it a widening of the conscious-force and eventually brings about the self-realisation of the All-Consciousness as this evolutionary action proceeds.
Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Book 2, Part I, Chapter 13, Exclusive concentration of Consciousness-Force and the Ignorance, pg. 589
Sri Aurobindo Studies 